We're hanging out at our old Blogspot. whatabouroutdaughters.com is down :(

Friday, August 17, 2007

I can't tell y'all how much I was dreading having to go out there and stand on the side of the road to exercise my First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and express myself. I really was just really dreading and would have rather have had a root canal without anesthesia and I cursed this blog and my big mouth a thousand times over the past week, but months before I started this blog, pissed off with all aspects of my mediocre life, I made a vow to live an amazing life, including living fearlessly. I definitely overcame my fears, I just said I don't care if I have to sit out there by myself, I am doing this if for nothing other than to conquer the fear of the unknown, but I took my trusty whistle and a Bar-B-Q fork as anti-foolishness devices just in case. I drove across town cursing this blog at every stop light, but determined to just gut it out, alone if necessary as my penance for opening my big mouth in the first place.

All of my fears were unwarranted and the Universe sent me someone who was more afraid ( really afraid. " Girl, I told you the PO PO wasn't coming to get us! Besides, I would have bailed you out!) to be out there so that automatically triggered my protective instincts and *poof* my fear was gone.

The demonstration was awesome! Nobody bothered us. In fact, a ton of people walked up to us as they were going in to ask us why we were demonstrating. So we got to educate a ton of people including one girl who was a student athlete. Sorry brother, we didn't mean to mess up your evening. People stopped in their cars to read our signs and folks visiting the strip mall kept walking up to us asking us why we were out there. Some folks rolled down their windows to ask us what the deal was. Each time I told them, they said that they didn't know and looked shocked. We didn’t chant or shout anything, in fact, we waved and smiled at folks and I think that just drew folks to us out of curiosity so we could actually have a conversation. We even gave some out of town folks directions to Wal-mart.. It didn’t rain and I don’t know the capacity for the club, but he had a good turnout, but we also got to talk to a bunch of folks.

One of my protesters (there were two besides moi) was absolutely terrified*note her posture in the picture above* ( see, nobody stabbed or shot us! We're still alive.) when she got there, but by the end of demonstration she was holding her placard high and walking back and forth . She’s addicted now. An off duty peace officer scribbled his digits on the back of that placard. ( I let her take it home as a souvenir and I didn't want her to transpose any numbers). GIRL YOU BETTER CALL THAT MAN! He was fine and had nice teeth! He wrote on the back of a perfectly good placard that could have been recycled, but he had nice teeth. It is possible that he is NOT a serial killer as we discussed at dinner. Stop watching America‘s Most Wanted by yourself..A good time was had by all. Austin is such a cool town. I won't lie, when you can go through the day without seeing more than five Black folks, including your coworkers, its actually nice to see and talk to a ton of your people in a two hour span.

I treated everybody to a celebratory Chinese buffet. Their choice. Not mine, “her royal- cheapness” would have even treated them to Pappadeaux's as relieved as I was, but the buffet was all good ( and less expensive. I fed three people for the price of an entrée’ at Pappadeaux’s)

As to why I didn't call the news... At the point at which D.L. Hughley's publicist and the comedy club start calling up the media and directing them to my site with FEARS about a protest, it is pretty clear that he is using this to drive his D-list career and make him seem more edgy than he really is. Normally he would have gotten a blurb, now he is being made a feature story talking about being "unapologetic. "If the blog is so inconsequential, why are they hyping it to reporters? However, I got an entire feature article beside his article as well. THANKS DL’s PUBLICIST! The Chinese restaurant carried the entertainment paper with the articles and I grabbed a copy I was actually a shock to see my name in huge print. Like 24-36 point letters with lengthy quotes.

I accomplished my original goal. I know folks want an apology, but I really don’t want one if it is not sincere. Originally, folks didn't call him on his crap, now it seems that the controversy is all reporters want to talk with him about. The worst punishment for an attention whore is that they do not get any attention.He is using this controversy to make himself appear to be more than what he is: a D-list comedian whose only relevance is that this blog and its readers think he’s a disrespectful D-list little twit. I think we’ve established that.

This was a test for moi. There will come a time when far more is at stake when we are going to have to take to the streets again. Except the next time we won't have to battle the fear of the unknown to do so.

I got over my fear of street demonstrations, learned how to construct placards from Styrofoam poster boards duct tape and a wooden stake, educated the community, met some cool folks, got a tan, laughed a bunch, and got to play matchmaker for a very sweet lady(I played a more active role than I have described in this post.). . Did I mention he had nice teeth? Girl you better call that man! I did not get a “chop her up into tiny little pieces and bury her in the back yard” vibe from him. Generally crazy recognizes crazy, but I make no guarantees, I've been wrong before. Do you want my anti-foolishness Bar-B-Q fork?

SO what is the lesson from this? First, feel the fear and do it anyway. Second, sisters forget church, the grocery store on Tuesday nights, the club, the post office, and work. If you want to meet a brother, go pick up a placard and start marching!I have a full recounting tomorrow. I may even do a special edition of the Black Women’s Roundtable, our podcast.

Now that this foolishness is over, we can move on to more important things again now that I don't have to worry about this twit..

I’m exhausted. G’ Nite!

P.S. If you click on the picture with the strip mall signs in the background, you can see the other "establishments" sharing space in the strip mall with the comedy club. That alone ought to make you laugh. Oh how the mighty have fallen. When they say "Labor Ready" they mean it.... whoever is ready. "Work Today. Pay Today" I especially liked "Rent -n- Roll," apparently people rent their hubcaps/rims. Who knew?Imagine if instead of renting rims, they made contributions to a Sharebuilder account? SMH Another day.

For people wondering why it is so light outside, his show started at 8:00 Ticket Sales at 7:00. This is Austin, not New York.